How Much Do You Value Movie Critiques & Reviews?

This is a question that begs to be answered because in this day and age there are more people going to film school then ever before and there are more people "claiming" to know what a good film is (verses a bad) basing that assumption on audience reaction to the film and the perception of that film's box office receipts. Unlike the early days of cinema the money a film makes at the box office greatly affects the perception of that film. In order to answer whether or not movie critiques and reviews should be valued you have to look at several criteria - box office receipts verses audience perception, genre and the movie critique, and historical context of the film.

First, we will take a look at the box office receipts verses audience perception of a film. For this purpose we will look at the recent success of the film Ghost Rider, which took in an estimated $115.8 million at the box office. General film critic consensus on the film when originally released was negative citing everything from a cliché script to shallow characters. Even through all the negative reviews the film was a box office surprise hit with audience reaction generally high. But when you take into consideration that male audiences between the ages of 13-24 are the ones that gave it a favorable review whereas females and audiences over 21 were indifferent then you begin to see a little clarity. The film scored well with its demographic but didn't cross over to other audiences.

Academy Award Nominated Letters From Iwo Jima was generally regarded as one of the best films of the year but that generally didn't translate into good box office as it only pulled in an estimated $13.8 million at the domestic box office. Critics loved the film but mainstream audiences ignored it. Not even the star power of being directed by Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood could translate this film to box office gold.

On the other hand the recent hit Waitress, whose current domestic take is $18.6 million, was both well reviewed and did well at the box office (comparable to budget and expectations) in part by both the critics and word-of-mouth.